Cognitive Life Skills

The philosophical model that drives American Community Corrections Institute is represented by the diagram below. It is that our thoughts drive our feelings and emotions, which produce our attitudes and behaviors, that result in the consequences of our lives. If we never change our faulty thinking, we will never change our self-defeating behaviors.

If we keep on thinking what we have been thinking, we will keep on doing what we have been doing, and we will keep getting what we have been getting.

If we want to change what we have been getting, then we will have to change what we have been thinking. Otherwise, nothing will change.

Since we first started working with court referred clients in 1975 we have continuously evolved and integrated the latest research while retraining our potent cognitive restructuring style of curriculum development. The following are some of ACCI’s propriety techniques and strategies that are infused into all of our courses:

Our content doesn’t play the shame game. We do not believe in belittling people, rather, our focus is on empowerment and self discovery.

Our curriculum’s first and most important objective is to challenge self defeating thoughts and behaviors.

We use vicarious stories to dis arm our participants objections to what they are learning.

We carefully use You statements. We have mastered the art of using third person references as a way to help our participants to see their life is a new way.

Our material is working simultaneously in the Cognitive Domain to challenge thinking errors and the Affective Domain to build empathy, self confidence and empowerment.

The philosophy that drives our content creation is that the subconscious mind doesn’t know right from wrong and that there are 3 main ways to get information into the subconscious mind. 1. Repetition 2.Trauma 3. Emotion.

All of our self-directed learning courses are designed to be completed with a pro-social “coach” or mentor. Its all about relationships! Participants sink deeper into our content while in the presence of a person of trust. The conversations between the participant and informal coach lead to informal accountability, great comprehension, personal conversations, role playing and great application of new cognitive thinking skills.

Responsive content -> the curriculum validates peoples efforts and issues and regards as a person with tremendous potential.

No labels. We are careful to use any type of labels in our material. Nor do we employ manipulative or punitive methods to motivate participants.

No ulterior Agenda’s ACCI content has no agenda for race, religion, gender, sexual orientation or political preference. We have a single focus of helping people face and over come their self-defeating thoughts and behaviors.

Facilitation versus telling. Our content asks more questions and facilitates responses as opposed to simply telling the participant what to do.